Festivus: Abbey Road On The River
posted in: Features
While current music fans are definitely not starved for music festivals in this day and age, we sometimes forget that festivals as we know them didn’t always exist. Seems like a shame to have missed out on artists like Buddy Holly or Elvis performing at large gatherings of musical talent. Now with Paul McCartney (somewhat) recently releasing his festival dates for the summer, among them being headlining spots at Isle of Wight and London’s Hard Rock Calling, another supergroup comes to mind. If the Beatles still toured today, they would be perfect headliners for many of our favorite fests. With such an extensive discography, we can’t help but fantasize about a festival that they could have made all their own, similar to Camp Bisco or Phish Festival. But alas, we’ll continue to curse our parents for having us too late in the game, and dream of what could have been. In the mean time, we’re going to hightail it to Louisville, KY for the Abbey Road on the River Festival, which is happening at the end of this month.
Abbey Road has called many different places home since its inception in 2002 in Cleveland, OH. Now firmly rooted in Louisville, the festival is FIVE DAYS long, with the first 4 days dedicated to Beatles’ music and the last day focused on late-60’s era music. This final day of the festival is titled “The Summer Of Love”. “The Summer Of Love” features tributes to bands like the Mamas and Papas, Simon & Garfunkle and The Who.
Bands come from all over the world to share their love of Beatlemania with the festival goers at Abbey Road, and they perform a huge variety of Beatles-related material. The “re-creators” attempt to mirror the Beatles experience as closely as possible both musically and visually, while the “sound-a-likes” replicate Beatles music without trying to look like them in concert. Then there are Tributes to Lennon/McCartney, where bands adapt the music of these greats to their own style, and Tributes to George Harrison, where both solo performers and bands incorporate George Harrison & the Traveling Wilburys into their own style. Sorry Ringo.
On top of these performances, Abbey Road on the River also features various special concerts. In the past these have included album shows of The White Album, reproductions of the LOVE show, rooftop performances and midnight shows. At the Cleveland Public Auditorium in 2004, a show was held in commemoration of a Beatles concert that happened forty years prior when fans rushed the stage and shut down the show for half an hour. (The Beatles were banned from the city the following year.) Not to mention the late night Beatles sing-a-longs that have a reputation for going until dawn.
So what do you need to know about this year’s Abbey Road on the River Festival? The rain-or-shine festival is family friendly so there’s a variety of ticket package options. And get this, if you’re under 21, you get in for free! A 5 day pass is $200 and you can purchase single day tickets without having to choose which day youwant to attend at the time of purchase. Can’t make it to Louisville May 27th-31st this year? Don’t despair. For the first time since 2002, Abbey Road has added a second festival. Beatlemania is going to happen all over again in Washington DC on September 2nd-6th.